---+ Open Source Success Stories
---++ South African Government
This is an excellent, detailed document.
_USING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT A PROPOSED STRATEGY COMPILED BY THE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OFFICERS' COUNCIL_
"Why an Open Source Software Strategy?
Open source software (OSS) is raising considerable interest worldwide. There are numerous favourable reports and for some IT applications OSS has a significant following. Like in many other countries, the Government in South Africa investigated its usability. The initial finding was that it may have significant potential, resulting in this proposed strategy for OSS use in Government."
The objectives of the evaluation are as follows:
- To determine if the Open Office application is a suitable and comparable substitute for the expensive proprietary office automation packages such as MS Office and Corral Office.
- To evaluate the functionality provided by Open Office.
- To determine the total cost of ownership of Open Office and compare it to another popular application.
- To understand and evaluate the availability of training and support for Open Office.
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---+++ [http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/chapter/470[European Union Case studies zooming in on certain Open Source adoptions in Member States.]]
You'll find a number of stories about education and local government at this site.
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---++ The Battle for Los Angeles
"Los Angeles politicians are proposing to redirect funds from software licenses to useful stuff like police officers and other public services. Specifically, the city wants to replace the Microsoft Office productivity suite with <nop>OpenOffice.org. Microsoft Office occupies 26,000 computers at more than $200 per seat. <NOP>OpenOffice.org is free. The city will save $5.2M if they change to the open source alternative."
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---++ [http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/success-stories/[MySQL and LAMP Success Stories]]
Here are some success stories from users of <nop>MySQL software. Many of these are implemented with a LAMP (Linux, Apache, <nop>MySQL and Python/PHP/Perl).
---++ Rurals
Supporting Family Farms with Open Source Software <br/> <nop>LocalHarvest.org is a national directory of small farms, farmers' markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, and other local sources of food. Built with open source software, the site helps create a community of people and their local farmers in an effort to encourage food diversity, freshness, sustainable agriculture practices, and support local economies rather than giant agribusiness. I recently met with the creator of <nop>LocalHarvest, Guillermo Payet, to learn more.
Taking Open Source to The Rural Areas <br/> South Africa's CSIR yesterday formally opened a new dedicated open source centre(OSC) at the Mogalakwena HP i-community centre in the Limpopo province in South Africa. The new centre, established by the CSIR's Meraka project, is intended to demonstrate how open source software can be used in rural and community environments.
---++ News Articles about Open Source
[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/business/yourmoney/19digi.html?th[The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)]] %BR% By RANDALL STROSS %BR% Published: December 19, 2004 %BR% FIREFOX is a classic overnight success, many years in the making. %BR% Published by the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting open-source software that draws upon the skills of hundreds of volunteer programmers, Firefox is a Web browser that is fast and filled with features that Microsoft's stodgy Internet Explorer lacks. Firefox installs in a snap, and it's free. %BR% Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company